The Adobe Premiere Elements workspace presents an easy-to-use interface for video enthusiasts. It organizes features into Quick, Guided, and Expert views based on their complexity.

Note:

If you are using Premiere Elements 2018 and earlier versions, you will also see the eLive tab. The eLive tab helps access a stream of resources right from your workspace to get creative ideas for your videos and become more proficient with Adobe Premiere Elements. For more information, see eLive.

Home screen

When you launch Adobe Premiere Elements, the first screen that you receive is the Home screen. On this screen, you can open your desired application, view several feature tutorials, access resources for latest features, view Auto Creations, and more. For more information about the Home screen, see Get to know the Elements Home screen.

Note:

If you are using Premiere Elements 2018 and earlier versions, you will see the welcome screen.

Quick Goal screen

From the Home screen, after you click Video Editor, the Quick Goal screen opens.

Quick Goal screen

The Quick Goal screen contains the following:

Trim a video clip tile: Click the tile and select a video that you want to trim. The Smart Trim screen opens with the selected video. For information about trimming a video clip, see Premiere Elements 2019 Quick view.

Combine photos and videos to create a single movie tile: Click the tile and select the media that you want to combine. Quick view opens.

Don't show again checkbox: If you select this checkbox, the Quick Goal screen does not open as the default home screen the next time you launch Premiere Elements. To change the setting of this checkbox, open the Quick Goal screen by choosing Windows > Quick Goal Screen.

Views

Quick view aggregates basic features that enthusiasts commonly use to quickly edit video footage and share with others. It optimizes common tasks that you perform with clips, such as editing clips and sharing movies.

Use the Quick view options to add titles, effects, transitions, and background music to your clips. Pan or zoom your clip, if necessary, or use Smart Trim for a crisper video. Use Instant Movie to automate movie creation steps.

The Quick view sceneline displays images and video clips as individual thumbnails. You can trim unwanted portions within individual video clips through the smart trim workspace, which you can launch by clicking the Edit video clip icon on a video. You can swap the position of a video clip with another to make a coherent movie sequence. Additionally, you can add transition effects at the beginning or end of your media, or between two media. You can also add music to your movie using the Add Music button. For more information, see Arranging clips in the Quick view timeline.

Quick - 2018 and earlier releases

The Quick view aggregates basic features that enthusiasts commonly use to quickly edit video footage and share with others. It optimizes common tasks that you perform with clips, such as editing clips, creating menus for DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and sharing movies.

Use the Quick view options to add titles, effects, and transitions, background music, and graphics to your clips. Pan or zoom your clip, if necessary, or use Smart Trim for a crisper video. Use Instant Movie to automate movie creation steps.

Quick view timeline

The Quick view timeline contains the following tracks:

Video: Edit your video clips and images in this track

Titles: Add text titles to your clips here

Sound: Add background music and other sounds to your movie

Narration: Include recorded narrations for your movie here

Quick view timeline

The Quick view timeline displays each clip as a series of frames that span the entire clip length. You can trim unwanted portions within individual frames and rearrange them. You can also swap the position of a clip with another to make a coherent movie sequence.

Workflow initiation

The Quick view timeline includes invocation points to get you started with your video creation process. Click any one of the invocation points to launch the desired workflow.

Drop Files Here: Click Drop Files Here on the timeline to open the Add Media panel. Select an option of your choice to add media to the timeline.

Drop Title: Click Drop Title on the timeline to open the Text and Titles panel. Select a title of your choice and drop it onto the timeline to get started.

Record Narration: Click Record Narration to launch the narration recorder. When recording is complete, the narration is dropped onto the track.

Drop Audio Clips: Click Drop Audio Clips to open the Music panel. Select an audio clip of your choice and drop it onto the track.

The invocation points continue to be available for the entire editing process. Use them as per your convenience and create great videos quickly.

The Guided view helps you edit movies by guiding you sequentially through a series of steps. From trimming unwanted footage to animating graphics in your video clips, guided edits help you enhance your video clips.

The Guided view provides instructions on how to perform various tasks in both Quick and Expert views. To start exploring and using the available Guided Edits, click the Quick tab or the Expert tab and then click the Guided tab. Pick the desired creation workflow and start creating your movie.

The Expert view includes advanced features and tools, such as Audio Mixer and Time Stretch, that professionals use to perform intricate video editing tasks.

In addition to the panels available in the Quick view, the Expert view contains the Project assets panel.

This panel contains the media files you import into your Premiere Elements project. Use the panel options to organize the files as a list or in a grid. The grid view displays a thumbnail for each file. If you add any media asset to the timeline, a green icon appears below the thumbnail for the asset.

Expert view timeline

For more advanced editing, use the Expert view timeline. The Expert view timeline graphically represents your movie project as video and audio clips arranged in vertically stacked tracks. When you capture video from a digital video device, the clips appear sequentially as they occur.

Expert view timeline

The Expert view timeline uses a time ruler to display the components of your movie and their relationship to each other over time. You can trim and add scenes, indicate important frames with markers, add transitions, and control how clips are blended or superimposed. The right-click options for the timeline are organized into easily accessible categories. Compared to the Quick view, the Expert view timeline has more tracks.

Create a structured story of your life events and spice it up with a magical touch.

Instant Movie

Automatically guides you through the movie creation process. It lets you quickly select movie templates and edit clips. Instant Movie also lets you add theme-based effects, titles, transitions, and audio to your movie. You can change settings as desired.

Export & Share

The Export & Share (previously called Publish +Share) panel contains everything you need, to save and share your finished project. You can save your project for viewing on the web, mobile phone, computer, DVD, and Blu-ray disc, among others. The Export & Share option includes all the available export formats in a single panel. Individual tabs on the Export & Share panel represent the various media options that you can choose from.

Toolbar

All the editing controls and tools in Premiere Elements are grouped in the right panel and categorized in three categories based on their functionality:

Fix

Adjust

Lets you adjust the inherent properties of your clip, for example color and lighting. You can also use the Smart Fix tool to enhance the quality of your video footage.

If you add a title to your clip, use the Adjust panel to alter its properties, if necessary.

Tools

Provides options that let you add cool effects to your video. For example, use Time Remapping and Smart Mix to add sophisticated motion effects to your video. You can choose Smart Trim to let Premiere Elements automatically edit your footage for a crisper video. For more information, see Tools.

Edit

Applied Effects

Lets you view the properties of effects already applied to your clip. The panel provides various options that enable you to modify the applied effects.

Effects

Shows special effects and presets you can apply to clips in your movie. To edit a special effect after applying it, click Applied Effects to modify the properties in the Applied Effects panel. Compared to the Quick view, the Expert view provides more effects that are organized under various categories. For more information, see Effects.

Transitions

Provides transitions you can use between your movie clips. The Transition contextual control appears automatically when you apply a transition for the first time. Use it to modify the transition properties. To open the Transition contextual control later, double-click the transition. The Expert view provides more transition effects compared to the Quick view. For more information, see Transitions.

Add

Titles

Contains pre-formatted title templates you can use in your movie. The Title contextual control appears automatically when you apply a title to your movie for the first time. Use it to modify the title properties. To open the Title contextual control later, double-click the title. The Expert view provides more title templates compared to the Quick view. For more information, see Creating titles.

Music

Lets you add theme music to your movie. You can select multiple music clips from here, and they are played in the order selected. For more information, see Adding music scores to video clips.

Graphics

(Available in 2019 Expert view and 2018 versions) Spruce up your videos with graphic elements, such as clip art and callouts (thought bubbles or speech balloons) that you can add to portions in your video clips.

Premiere Elements 2018 and earlier releases

Welcome screen

When you first launch Adobe Premiere Elements, the Welcome screen is displayed. The product Welcome screen includes options to launch all three products - Premiere Elements, Photoshop Elements, and Elements Organizer. A link to the trial version is available if any of the products is not installed on your computer.

Click Video Editor to create a new project, with default settings, in the workspace. To open an existing project, click the arrow next to Video Editor.

Access the Elements Organizer to organize, tag, and perform basic editing tasks on your media before importing them into Adobe Premiere Elements.

Customize launch options

By default, the Welcome screen opens when you launch Adobe Premiere Elements for the first time.

Click the Settings button on the title bar to specify the window or application that you want displayed on subsequent launches of Adobe Premiere Elements.

Select one of the following launch options:

Welcome Screen: Launches the Welcome screen each time you open Adobe Premiere Elements. This option is enabled by default.

Organizer: If you use Elements Organizer to organize your media before editing them in Adobe Premiere Elements, choose this option.

Video Editor: Select this option if you want the Adobe Premiere Elements workspace to open every time you launch Adobe Premiere Elements.

Start screen

The Premiere Elements start screen makes it easier for you to initiate popular workflows. You have several options to start creating your videos. Hover your mouse over each option to learn more about it. Click one of the options to start creating your video.

Add Media

Use the Add Media panel to add media files from sources, such as video cameras, flip, webcams, digital still cameras, mobile phones, and folders on your hard disk.

Tell your story using titles

Enhance your movies with ready-to-use and customizable motion titles. Start by including motion title templates that are preloaded with animated graphic presets, text, and background styles that can all be edited to suit your requirements.

Clicking Tell your story using titles opens the Motion Titles selection panel from the action bar. Select and drag a template of your choice and start creating your movie.